A famous Russian writer and ex-paratrooper named Alexander Kurbsky has gotten fed up with the Putin government, and decides he wants to "disappear" into the West. He is under no illusions, however, about how the news will be greeted at home, having seen too many of his countrymen die mysteriously at the hands of the thuggish Russian security services, so he makes elaborate plans with Charles Ferguson, Sean Dillon and the rest of the group known informally as the "Prime Minister's private army".

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Dispatched by the President to report on the state of troubled Kosovo, his trusted agent , Blake Johnson, runs into a military man there named Harry Miller, who has the same task from the British Prime Minister. They band together just in time to stop a Russian officer from torching a mosque - or rather, Miller stops him, with a bullet to the forehead.

The Wolf at the Door: A Sean Dillon Novel

Putin and the Russians have suffered too many killings of their own people in the past. Now they want the whole of the "prime minister's private army" wiped out, including Blake Johnson and Charles Ferguson. Somebody is after them: Blake; Harry Miller; his sister, Monica; Harry Salter; and Billy. The only people spared are Roper and Dillon. After surviving a car bomb, Ferguson heads a desperate search to uncover the perpetrator.

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For intelligence operative Sean Dillon, it is a routine passport check. But the events it will lead to will be as bloody as any he has ever known. The man he stops at Heathrow airport is Caspar Rashid, born and bred in England, but with family ties to a Bedouin tribe fiercely wedded to the old ways, as he's just found out to his pain.

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A disturbing audiotape has made its way to General Charles Ferguson, adviser to the Prime Minister, and from him to the President of the United States: battlefield chatter from an ambush in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in which twelve U.S. Army Rangers and a British medical team died. Most of the Taliban voices are Afghan, but not all of them — shockingly, some of them are British, and one in particular, the voice of the commander, bears an Irish accent.

Without Mercy: A Sean Dillon Novel

As Detective Superintendent Hannah Bernstein of Special Branch lies recuperating in the hospital, a dark shadow sent by a figure from the past steals across the room and finishes the job. Consumed by grief and rage, Dillon, Blake, and Ferguson swear vengeance, no matter where it takes them. But they have no idea of the searing journey, both physical and emotional, upon which they are about to embark - nor of the war that will change them all.

A Devil is Waiting

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Dark Justice

After a botched assassination attempt on the President of the United States, White House operative Blake Johnson and his opposite number in British intelligence Sean Dillon set out to trace the source of the havoc. Someone is recruiting a shadowy network of terrorists, and that man is not pleased by the interference. Soon he will target them all: Johnson, Dillon, Dillon's colleagues. And one of them will fall...

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Sean Dillon once again finds himself facing the murderous Rashid family and their oil-rich dynasty. After Kate Rashid watched her brothers’ lives being taken one by one as Sean Dillon and his undercover team foiled their plot to kill the president, she vowed to seek revenge. Now Sean Dillon is in her sights, but her plot to seek vengeance reaches far beyond the British agent or his team. She’ll get even with Dillon, White House operative Blake Johnson - even the US President if she needs to - and only she knows when or how.

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The White House Connection: Sean Dillon #7

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Drink With the Devil

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Angel of Death: A Sean Dillon Novel

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Bad Company

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Thunder Point

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Touch the Devil

Frank Barry, terrorist of the highest order. His ideology is money and his track record is flawless. When the Russians want review copies of the latest NATO missile system, Barry is the man to deliver them. Martin Brosnan, poet, scholar and killer. Trained in Vietnam then polished in the ranks of the IRA he now languishes in a French prison fortress of Belle Isle.

Wolf at the Door: Sean Dillon, Book 17

Putin and the Russians have suffered too many killings of their own people in the past. Now they want the whole of the 'Prime Minister's private army' wiped out, including Blake Johnson and Charles Ferguson. Somebody is after them: Blake, Harry Miller, his sister, Monica, Harry Salter and Billy. The only people spared are Roper and Dillon. After surviving a car bomb, Ferguson heads a desperate search to uncover the perpetrator.

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Confessional

Mikhail Kelly’s credentials were impeccable. Russian mother, Irish father hanged by the British. He could split an apple – or a head – across a large room with a handgun. And his special talent was acting. The KGB gave him the perfect part…assassin.

Publisher's Summary

A famous Russian writer and ex-paratrooper named Alexander Kurbsky has gotten fed up with the Putin government, and decides he wants to "disappear" into the West. He is under no illusions, however, about how the news will be greeted at home, having seen too many of his countrymen die mysteriously at the hands of the thuggish Russian security services, so he makes elaborate plans with Charles Ferguson, Sean Dillon and the rest of the group known informally as the "Prime Minister's private army" for his escape and concealment.

It's a real coup for the West except for one thing: Kurbsky is still working for the Russians. The plan is to infiltrate British and American intelligence at the highest levels, and he has his own motivations for doing the most effective job possible. He does not care what he has to do or where he has to go...or whom he has to kill.

I 've been a huge Jack Higgins fan for over 20 years. The last several Sean Dillon books that I've read repeated too many of the same formula elements, i.e. the boat ride to Ireland, plane landing in the sea, Blake Johnson getting ambushed, the same quote from Heidegger about resolute living and Dillon getting saved by his titanium waistcoat. A Darker Place does repeat most of these leitmotifs but it goes further and explores many new elements.

Sean Dillion is relegated to a relatively minor role. He is in the story throughout, but in the back row of the characters. My interest in the next book in the series is high because of the introduction of one or more new characters that I think can enrichen the cast of usual characters.

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